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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

I'VE BARELY GOT A HANDLE ON CLOSED GUARD, WHAT THE F%&K IS SPIRAL GUARD.

Just in case your life is stuck in forever lazy rut, we are here to shake things up. Chances are that your guard game looks more like your daily life which is a stagnant, sweaty, uneventful mess. No worries grapplers, just consider this an intervention for your guard game.

For some of you it may seem that every few months someone comes up with a new guard variation that becomes the hottest new trend for those one stripe whitebelts to kick your ass with. While growth and innovation has been an integral part of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, it sometimes can be a hindrance. BJJ youngins' have a tendency to want to learn the coolest new moves before they have mastered the very basics of grappling.

...And now that's just about where our common sense stops and our love of cool grappling shit begins. For some of you the spiral guard may bring back childhood memories of drawing concentric circles with flimsy plastic chips for hours on end. Well that's not what the spiral guard is. Quite frankly, it's a half guard variation and it's sometimes called the reverse De la Riva. Just like it's close cousin the DLR guard, your foot hooks your opponents thigh and keeps him locked-in yet off balance. Check out this video where Black Belt Sebastian DeJesus shows us a nifty sweep and some counters utilizing the spiral guard.